LIT 24 — Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov
Quarter: Winter
Instructor(s): Anne Hruska
Date(s): Jan 13—Mar 17
Class Recording Available: Yes
Class Meeting Day: Tuesdays
Class Meeting Time: 7:00—8:50 pm (PT)
Tuition: $560
Refund Deadline: Jan 15
Unit(s): 2
Status: Closed
Quarter: Winter
Day: Tuesdays
Duration: 10 weeks
Time: 7:00—8:50 pm (PT)
Date(s): Jan 13—Mar 17
Unit(s): 2
Tuition: $560
Refund Deadline: Jan 15
Instructor(s): Anne Hruska
Recording Available: Yes
Status: Closed
The Brothers Karamazov is widely recognized as Dostoevsky’s masterpiece. Written at the end of his life while mourning his beloved 3-year-old son Alyosha, the novel is both a gripping story of murder and revenge and a profound exploration of faith, freedom, love, and loss. Upon its publication in 1879–1880, The Brothers Karamazov became immensely popular among the Russian reading public, in part because of its thrilling, melodramatic plot filled with twists, a murder mystery, lust, violence, jealousy, and multiple crises of faith. The novel addresses pressing social issues of the day, including political repression, radical violence, and child abuse, while contemplating the construction of a new social world in the wake of serf emancipation. Dostoevsky imbues these concrete issues with timeless philosophical weight, connecting them to broader ideas of faith and atheism, sin and redemption, and the distant hope for brotherhood on Earth. We will read The Brothers Karamazov within its historical context and explore the philosophical and religious arguments at its heart.
ANNE HRUSKA
Senior English Instructor, Stanford Online High School
Anne Hruska taught for five years in Stanford’s Introduction to the Humanities program and has also taught at UC Berkeley, the University of Missouri, and the Pedagogical Institute in Saratov, Russia. She received a PhD from UC Berkeley, and her academic specialty is Russian literature.
Textbooks for this course:
(Required) Fyodor Dostoevsky, Richard Pevear (Trans.), Larissa Volokhonsky (Trans.), The Brothers Karamazov, Bicentennial Edition (ISBN 978-1250788450)